SuperSport Schools Plus

Grey PE on top against Nico Malan

By Hannes Nienaber , in Rugby | News , at 2013-04-16

Our first fixture of the regular season took place against Nico Malan in Humansdorp on Saturday. Our opponents were confident after a string of good results against some of their more fancied opponents at the Easter Festivals they attended – and an early score by their fullback after poor ball retention on our part sent their crowd into delirium. The conversion was good and the score 0 points to 7. The next 20 minutes were scrappy, as we struggled for cohesion. Thankfully we managed to get our act together and stand in captain Martin Groenewald capped off a good passage of play with a belligerent run to score our first try and level the scores at 7 a piece.
Moments later Nico Malan kicked a penalty to the corner. The ball was spread wide and the highly rated Selwyn Davids beat our defense to reclaim his deft grubber kick and score their second try. That proved to the be the final action of the first half which ended 7 to 12.
We seemed a different team after the break and began to carry the ball with a greater sense of determination and urgency, which soon brought dividends in the form of a penalty goal after a period of sustained pressure in their half of the field.
Again a lapse in concentration on defense allowed Davids to ghost through and score their third try, which was unconverted. Our newfound brutal effiency while carrying the ball and accuracy at the break down began to tell as Keanu Vers rounded off another period of dominance by our pack with a fine try as we narrowed the gap to only two points, trailing by 15 points to 17. This period of possession and territorial dominance broke our opponent’s spirits and we began to run riot – Dylan Vermaak scoring two tries in quick succession as we first gained and then stretched our lead to 29 points to 17, with 15 or so minutes remaining. A long break for an injury to one of Nico Malan’s outside backs gave them time to regroup and the last ten minutes saw Nico Malan score from fairly long range after a fortuitous turnover at a breakdown. The conversion was good and our lead was reduced to 5 points with 4 minutes on the clock. Nico Malan maintained possession from the kick off and it went wide – only for their wing to hack in downfield. Keanu Vers won the subsequent scramble for possession to dot down. We squandered possession from the restart and a few minutes of panicky defense began before our opponents coughed the ball up. The final whistle brought the curtain down on a fine advert for school’s rugby, on a day our superior conditioning and desire to win held sway over a plucky and pugnacious Nico Malan XV.

Hannes Nienaber
error: Sorry ol' chap, those shenanigans are not permissible.